Silver Martlet for Aodh O Siadhail

On the first night I chose the exemplar (BL MS Additional 40618 f. 23, drew out all the lines, and put down the gold size. The second night, I gilded. The third night was for composing the text and doing the rubrication. line height: 1/16"; line spacing: 1/8".

The text reads:

Quoniam Hugo Osheall coquit, legit, et conspicit ad celum, nos, Iannicus et Alana, principes insulenses, ordinant quod hinc dictum Hugonem esse socium ordinis avis argentee. Datum apud Glen Rathlin ii septembri lii, fit manum scriptricis Arie dicte bone. Because Aodh O Siadhail cooks, reads, and stares at the sky, we, Yannick and Alana, prince and princess of Insulae Draconis, ordain that the said Aodh be henceforth a ompanion of the Order of the Silver Martlet. This we do on the 2nd day of the 7th month of our reign, while in our shire of Glen Rathlin, and in perpetual witness hereof we have caused the present document to be drawn up by the hand of our scribe called Bona.

And here's a close-up of the initial.

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© 2017, Sara L. Uckelman.

Ffraid for Amphelise de Wodeham

Since Amphelise is both a writer and Insulae Draconis's chronicler, I really wanted to have a woman writing. I also wanted to push the limits of my skills by doing another human figure, which I am generally very scared of.

I spent an evening searching through digitised MS sites trying to find depictions of women writing -- and I collected them on twitter; the thread starts here:

Starting off with MSs from @MorganLibrary. For every five images of Troilus writing Cressida, you get one vice versa (MS M.0371 fol. 017v): pic.twitter.com/L11WJCMzy0

— Sara L. Uckelman (@SaraLUckelman) July 25, 2017

Amusingly, the image I ended up settling on to copy did not actually have a woman in it. The exemplar image is from a Paris MS of the Roman de la Rose from c1340, and depicts Jean de Meun writing. The image was simple enough, and I could already see how to turn him from a man into a woman, that I figured I'd give it a go.

The entire scroll took 6.5 hours, and again I documented it in half-hour stages on twitter, up until the point where there would be spoilers:

Moving WAAAAAY outside my comfort zone with this new project. This is 30 minutes in. pic.twitter.com/xq59L4MrU8

— Sara L. Uckelman (@SaraLUckelman) July 27, 2017

1 hour in. Yes, it took me a full half an hour to ink this, and erase part of what I'd drawn before... pic.twitter.com/Jek911ggji

— Sara L. Uckelman (@SaraLUckelman) July 27, 2017

1.5 hours total. Time to stop for the night. pic.twitter.com/GugvAYBfmf

— Sara L. Uckelman (@SaraLUckelman) July 27, 2017

It's not often I decide I really don't like something I've done. But this warranted a bit of "erasing". (2 hours total). pic.twitter.com/kAXUvbsi3N

— Sara L. Uckelman (@SaraLUckelman) July 31, 2017

These half-hour episodes of the BBC Chronicles of Narnia make timekeeping easy. Time for a cuppa. (2.5 hours total.) pic.twitter.com/WbjzGIBc5o

— Sara L. Uckelman (@SaraLUckelman) July 31, 2017

I keep telling myself, "it will get better when the whitework is done. It will get better when the whitework is done". (3 hrs.) pic.twitter.com/c3MxtHoVry

— Sara L. Uckelman (@SaraLUckelman) July 31, 2017

The borders worked much better the 2nd time around. Time to put down the gold size, I think. (3.5 hrs.) pic.twitter.com/L17Ry1m4Wd

— Sara L. Uckelman (@SaraLUckelman) July 31, 2017

Tomorrow, all that yellow will become gold. (Ignore the white square; I screwed up, but took photo before fixing it.) (4 hours total) pic.twitter.com/9vjovBWeSj

— Sara L. Uckelman (@SaraLUckelman) July 31, 2017

Nothing makes you feel rich like all the excess gold you get when gilding. (4.5 hours total.) pic.twitter.com/5YQqxkawEy

— Sara L. Uckelman (@SaraLUckelman) August 1, 2017

So, I've reached the bit way outside my comfort zone: draping.

It's....okay so far. (5 hours total) pic.twitter.com/nNRDXSlsbn

— Sara L. Uckelman (@SaraLUckelman) August 1, 2017

And this is the last photo before it is given to its recipient, so as to not spoil the surprise. (5.5 hours total.) pic.twitter.com/f0Xfi4o4KY

— Sara L. Uckelman (@SaraLUckelman) August 1, 2017

The text reads:

Haec verba Ianici et Alane principes Insulenses sunt:

Cause it to be known to all that Amphelise de Wodeham is made a member of the Order of Ffraid.

I was SO SO pleased when people other than me were able to identify the lady as Amphelise! Here's a few close-ups

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© 2017, Sara L. Uckelman.